HOW TO USE ZINEPAL - PART 4

PART 4 - Tips, Tricks & Troubleshooting

Introduction

In PART 3 we reviewed some of the additional features specific to a finalized eBook. Here is a brief explanation of the more commonly occurring issues which may be encountered.

In the event of any problems you should first read the section under Help --> "Frequently Asked Questions" before referring to Help --> "Zinepal Users Group".

Problems, Solutions, Questions & Answers

(a) My national language is not displaying properly. How can I correct this?

In order to display alternative languages correctly, you should select "Arial Unicode" in the following fields: "eBook Title Font", "Story Text Font", "Story Title Font".

(b) When I finalize a "Free" eBook which contains "Pro" features, what happens to the Pro features?

If you do not purchase a Pro account before finalizing, then these features will disappear from the final eBook and cannot be recovered.

You can check which features are "Free" and which features are "Pro" subscription by clicking on the Features page.

(c) When my PDF is created, there is an error, "Unknown Error, Something went wrong". Why is this and what can I do?

Usually this means there is some non-standard or complex HTML coding which Zinepal cannot interpret.

If your source page is a feed or web page containing multiple stories then it may be some particular story or stories causing the error. You should try selecting only a few stories to see if you can narrow down the problem.

With the Pro version, you can copy and paste the offending story or stories via the "edit" feature under "Customize Your eBook" and "Add New Story". You should try this out in "preview" mode first to see whether it will work.

(d) When my PDF is created, some images are missing. Why is this and what can I do?

Some images will not easily translate, either because of their size or type. In this case you should copy/paste the images via the "edit" feature as described under (c) above.

(e) When I finalize my eBook, only the first paragraphs of each story are showing. Why is this and what can I do?

Zinepal attempts to automatically recognize the feed-type, however, sometimes this is not possible. In this case, you can change the feed-type manually, as follows:

Enter your feed address and click on "Select Stories", then when the list of stories appears, click on the feed origin (which appears with each listed story, in small print).

This will bring up a page where you can click on "set what content is in this feed". You can select either "partial stories..." or "complete stories" and then "Save".

(f) My blog has multiple stories but only a certain number are showing up. Why is this and what can I do?

This can be due to one or more of the following reasons:

1. Zinepal usually selects 5 stories as the default when displaying them from a feed. Also, "5" is the maximum number of stories allowed with the free version.

2. The maximum number of stories for a Pro account is "50". You cannot create an eBook with more than 50 stories using Zinepal.

3. On many blogs, "10" is the default setting for how many stories are displayed. It is normally possible to change this. You should inquire on your blog site for details of how to do this.

4. If you have changed the number of stories in the feed on your blog site but they are still not showing up then it is probably a caching issue. Zinepal uses caching for speed and therefore you may need to clear the cache.

The cache will refresh automatically after a length of time but you can also clear it by changing the feed-type and then resetting it back to the previous state. For information on how to do this refer to section (e) above.

5. After changing the blog-feed settings Zinepal may time-out before accessing further stories. This is because you cannot feed an unlimited number of stories to Zinepal.

In this case you must alter your blog-feed settings to deliver stories in segments i.e. the first 50, then the next 50, etc.

(g) When I copy/paste or edit a web page some of the text may not display correctly or cannot be properly re-formatted. Why is this and what can I do about it?

The processing and display of a web page generally depends on the original source coding. If it is desired to re-format a section of text then the following approach can be used.

Select, then cut and paste the section of text into a simple text editor program (e.g. notepad). This will remove all HTML formatting.

You can then copy and paste the text back into the edit-box and perform any re-formatting as necessary.

Note that only limited functionality is provided by the Zinepal editor. Some formatting features may not work due to the ever-changing HTML standards.

(h) When I login to a different computer I can't see the current eBook which I was working on. Where is it?

You must always "logout" of your current Zinepal session if you wish to continue working on a different computer. Otherwise the work in your session will not be visible elsewhere.

If this situation occurs, the only way to recover is by returning to your original computer where you will find your work still intact.

END - Tips, Tricks & Troubleshooting

If you are experiencing other problems which are not covered in the Help section then you can refer your queries to Zinepal by clicking on About --> "contact us".

End of "HOW TO USE ZINEPAL".

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